Teaching at the Professorship of Cyber Trust

Seminar: Data Analytics for Cybercrime and Undesirable Online Behaviors (IN0014, IN2107, IN4424)

Course Instructor: Prof. Jens Grossklags, Ph.D.

Cybercriminal activities as well as other undesirable or malicious activities have increased in prevalence over the last decade. At the same time, the efforts and capabilities of industrial and academic researchers to understand these phenomena have made significant improvements. In this seminar, we will discuss a range of recent data-driven studies focusing, for example, on Spear-Phishing, Ransomware, Cybercriminal Marketplaces, Online Fraud etc., but also other challenges of societal interest such as Cyber-Bullying and Fake News. Each participant of the seminar will deeply engage with a key study to understand its focus, methodology, (data) limitations, and achievements. It is further expected to understand each work in the context of related studies, e.g., from security industry research labs. Participants of the seminar are expected to build on the literature to develop research objectives for further study.

TUM Online: Course description

Application via http://docmatching.in.tum.de/

 

Seminar: The Value of Privacy (IN0014, IN2107, IN4933)

Course Instructor: Severin Engelmann

What does privacy mean? What values do we address when we speak of privacy? How do these different values relate to each other? Is there a commercial value of privacy? Are privacy and security trade-offs? Overall, how can we protect the right to privacy in a digitalized society? Recently, in light of several global data breach scandals, such questions have become the subject of intense debate in the public, in academia, industry, and law. The aim of this seminar is to first explore the different conceptualizations of privacy from literature in law, sociology, philosophy, policy, and privacy enhancing technology. Second, students will review how current digital technologies, in particular, machine learning and big data methods in social media, online behavioural advertising, or intelligent personal assistants (and others) influence and shape our understanding of privacy. In order to complete the seminar successfully, students are required to prepare a presentation and, if desired, hand in an 8-10-page report.

TUM Online: Course Description

Application via http://docmatching.in.tum.de/

Seminar: Behavioral Insights in the Age of Big Data (IN0014, IN2107, IN4422)

Course Instructor: Mo Chen, Ph.D.

Behavioral insights are “an inductive approach to policy-making combining fundamental insights from psychology, cognitive science, and social science with empirically-tested results to discover how humans actually make choices” (by OECD). There is a trend of governments and organizations applying behavioral insights to public policy to shape and influence behavior. At the same time, the past decade witnessed a global interest in digital tools to influence behavior. Tools driven by the rapidly advancing technology development around big data as well as artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly integrated in social governance. As a result, behavioral insights can now function as a policy-making tool to utilize the insights generated by big data, and the relationship between behavioral insights and big data is growing ever closer. In the seminar, we will deepen our understanding of behavioral insights in public policy making from an interdisciplinary point of view.

Course objectives:

Understand behavioral insights in public policy making from an interdisciplinary point of view.
Become familiar with the basic concepts and application of nudging in public policy.

Prepare and write a scientific paper (English; 8-10 pages)
Conduct a presentation of your topic (English; 15 minutes + 10 minutes discussion)

Requirement:
Strong interest in interdisciplinary work.

TUM Online: Course Description

Application via http://docmatching.in.tum.de/

Seminar: Security and Privacy Economics (IN0014, IN2107, IN4892)

Course Instructor: Tibor Posa

The seminar explores the nascent and growing field of the economics of privacy and cyber security and related security/risk governance aspects. Many security failures have economic causes. Systems are vulnerable when their defenders do not have sufficient incentives to invest in security technologies, for example, because they do not suffer the full consequences of their actions. Applying existing security/risk governance approaches and measurement or ROI (return on investment) calculation techniques can make a difference between consequence scenarios. At the same time, users’ personal and financial information has played a critical role in the monetization of attacks, including attacks through social engineering tactics. But personal information has also become a commercial good for legitimate companies. Data is collected for countless purposes. Targeted advertisements, personalization, price discrimination as well as the creation and sale of background reports are enabled by the automated wholesale accumulation of users’ trail online and offline. In this seminar, we will investigate the economic incentives for security attacks and appropriate security defenses and related risk governance approaches. A further objective is a better understanding of the current and future marketplace for personal information and the behavioral foundations of user privacy. We will discuss methods from the economic and behavioral sciences to contribute to a rigorous comprehension of the challenges and solution approaches for current privacy and security challenges.

Course objectives:

Students are expected to deliver a concise report and a comprehensive presentation about their findings. The exact timeline will be discussed in the introductory sessions. The formation of teams is possible with approval by the instructor.

Requirement:
No specific knowledge required. General interest in interdisciplinary privacy and security topics highly desirable. The seminar language is English.

TUM Online: Course Description

Application via http://docmatching.in.tum.de/